Blocking ads is stealing?

[Bossanova]

Click here.

Now, for someone such as Clinger (If you've used ProBoards, you'll know how big this dude is in the business) to say it's stealing to block ads...is it true, or not?

Either way (I know there is another topic about this somewhere), we have every right to block these ads. It's just like changing the TV channel to avoid commercials, or changing the radio station to avoid the commercials.

It seems like when people are honest about blocking the ads, they get in trouble vs just moving on with their life using the adblocker.

 

[Justin]

If it was stealing those mods would be illegal.

 

[Bejay]

I agree with the person who said this and then again I don't. Proboards is free, they need something to keep it free (Even though it's rubbish in my oppinion). And, people have a 100% right to block ads.

 

[Antarctic]

No one can tell you to remove your ad-blocker, it's not stealing at all, there's nothing illegal about it.

 

[Bossanova]

No one can tell you to remove your ad-blocker, it's not stealing at all, there's nothing illegal about it.

What if the service terminates your account for blocking the ads? Then what?

 

[Antarctic]

They won't be able to find out unless you tell them. Nothing can detect if you are using a adblocker or not.

 

[Joshua Farrell]

From what I know of, if you post on the support board at proboards, that you are blocking the google ads, and local ads that is bought through the advertising subdomain, you have the right to be either given a verbal warning or banned. The latter being the most extreme case. What it basically says is that they cannot make the money that people are paying to put in that advertise space, because no one is viewing them.

From the tips I had received, if you are going to block ads, and you are on the support board of that place, their suggestion is that you only unblock on the support board, and block the rest of the forums at will if you want. That way, they can say that they are doing their side of the bargain on getting people's ads out.

 

[Bossanova]

From what I know of, if you post on the support board at proboards, that you are blocking the google ads, and local ads that is bought through the advertising subdomain, you have the right to be either given a verbal warning or banned. The latter being the most extreme case. What it basically says is that they cannot make the money that people are paying to put in that advertise space, because no one is viewing them.

From the tips I had received, if you are going to block ads, and you are on the support board of that place, their suggestion is that you only unblock on the support board, and block the rest of the forums at will if you want. That way, they can say that they are doing their side of the bargain on getting people's ads out.

Good thing I'm not on pbs anymore, then. 😎

 

[Justin]

They won't be able to find out unless you tell them. Nothing can detect if you are using a adblocker or not.

Proven Fact :great:

 

[Nebulous]

When reading the topic title, I thought this topic was about disabling the ads from being viewed on a free host by inserting some sort of javascript to make them go away..
Ive seen that done before, and usually leads to the forum being deleted.

However, adblock? They cannot tell you not to use it. What a funny thing to say.. That would be like watching television and before the commercial break comes up, someone says "Do not steal from us! Do not change the channel or walk away to use the rest room during these commercials."
If someone wants to sit and watch the commercials its because they wanted to. Same goes for the adblock program. The ads are still there for those who dont mind them.

 

[spyka]

Actually, you can detect adblockers, not 100% but try this: http://www.spyka.net/files/test.html

 

[CyberFreak]

I think they are just saying that to scare people to allow the ads to show so they can make a bit of extra money.

There is no law saying that to use a website you have to view all the ads they show. Each site has their own TOS though so they can say whatever they want. If they want t delete forums for that reason and it is in their TOS then it is their choice although they know that if they did delete forum because of it that the number of forums they have will be halved. Also only because you block ads, doesn't mean that all your members will block ads aswell. You may block ads but the host could still make a profit from the ads on that forum. It is just a scare tactic in my opinion.

 

[Ziveeman]

Television channels don't care if you switch the channel or not because they get paid regardless if people view it or not.

With ads on the Internet, most of them pay per click instead of per impression, so by blocking ads, you're blocking revenue.

And if you're blocking revenue, don't expect that service to stay free for long.

You have a right to block ads, but they also have a right to block their service to anyone they want.

 

[DarkRaven]

You have a right to block ads, but they also have a right to block their service to anyone they want.

Quoted for truth. I used to use adblock a lot until I started trying to make money out of my own forum by using Google Ads. I wanted to upgrade to IP. Board at the time. Anyway, I went and told my members why I had ads up and I got a ton of responses like ''Thank god I have adblock''. I felt so gutted. I no longer block google ads at the moment, just annoying infolinks and traffic junky ads.

 

[Ziveeman]

Same here. I did the same exact thing. It's tough to be paying for hosting when you go to uni so I'm trying to at least break even - not even make a profit - just break even.

 

[Cosmic]

Removing ads from your free hosted forum via javascripts is dishonest, in my opinion, but a user has every right to block them.

 

[Bluezone777]

Removing ads from your free hosted forum via javascripts is dishonest, in my opinion, but a user has every right to block them.

And probably illegal on such hosts. Most hosts from what I seen will shut your board down if you try doing that board wide such as Invisionfree/Zetaboards, Jcink, etc.

 

[ros]

Considering it's in most free hosts' TOS to not block the sites from the site's side, I think that would be wrong. However, to block them using something like Firefox AdBlock is acceptable. Let the members block the ads instead of the site.

 

[Kaynil]

I think that there is a difference between the staff maliciously blocking the ads in their free hosted places when they agreed in the ToS to display them.

But, each user has the right to decide what to view or not. Some members will use adblock, some won't, that is up to them.

Of course I agree with the Dancing-Milk-dude, if it comes the point most people does it, it will be hard for them to keep providing the service for free and that would be a direct consequence.

 

[wetclams]

Some people will block and some will not.

Simple as that.

To block the ADs is the same reason as blocking cookies- Privacy and security... There is also the fact that many firewalls and programs that you can buy, oh, say, like Avast, some of these programs have 'shields' and I do know some of these shields will block ADs.

So... All in all, you can't control the fact someone is blocking ADs and it isn't stealing, unless, you know, they maliciously block the ADs or break into the Server and wipe out the code or something.